Good articles by Thomas Sowell--read b4 U vote!

[MMJ_fanatic]

Obama and 'The Left'


Although Senator Barack Obama has been allied with a succession of far left individuals over the years, that is only half the story. There are, after all, some honest and decent people on the left. But these have not been the ones that Obama has been allied with — allied, not merely "associated" with.


ACORN is not just an organization on the left. In addition to the voter frauds that ACORN has been involved in over the years, it is an organization with a history of thuggery, including going to bankers' homes to harass them and their families, in order to force banks to lend to people with low credit ratings.


Nor was Barack Obama's relationship with ACORN just a matter of once being their attorney long ago. More recently, he has directed hundreds of thousands of dollars their way. Money talks — and what it says is more important than a politician's rhetoric in an election year.


Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger are not just people with left-wing opinions. They are reckless demagogues preaching hatred of the lowest sort — and both are recipients of money from Obama.


Bill Ayers is not just "an education professor" who has some left-wing views. He is a confessed and unrepentant terrorist, who more recently has put his message of resentment into the schools — an effort using money from a foundation that Obama headed.


Nor has the help all been one way. During the last debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, Senator McCain mentioned that Senator Obama's political campaign began in Bill Ayers' home. Obama immediately denied it and McCain had no real follow-up.


It was not this year's political campaign that Obama began in Bill Ayers' home but an earlier campaign for the Illinois state legislature. Barack Obama can match Bill Clinton in slickness at parsing words to evade accusations.


That is one way to get to the White House. But slickness with words is not going to help a president deal with either domestic economic crises or the looming dangers of a nuclear Iran.


People who think that talking points on this or that problem constitute "the real issues" that we should be talking about, instead of Obama's track record, ignore a very fundamental fact about representative government.


Representative government exists, in the first place, because we the voters cannot possibly have all the information necessary to make rational decisions on all the things that the government does. We cannot rule through polls or referendums. We must trust someone to represent us, especially as President of the United States.


Once we recognize this basic fact of representative government, then the question of how trustworthy a candidate is becomes a more urgent question than any of the so-called "real issues."


A candidate who spends two decades promoting polarization and then runs as a healer and uniter, rather than a divider, forfeits all trust by that fact alone.


If Ronald Reagan had attempted to run for President of the United States as a liberal, the media would have been all over him. His support for Barry Goldwater would have been in the headlines and in editorial denunciations across the country.


No way would he have been able to get away with using soothing words to suggest that he and Barry Goldwater were like ships that passed in the night.


If Barack Obama had run as what he has always been, rather than as what he has never been, then we could simply cast our votes based on whether or not we agree with what he has always stood for.


Some people take solace from the fact that Senator Obama has verbally shifted position on some issues, like drilling for oil or gun control, since this is supposed to show that he is "pragmatic" rather than ideological.


But political zig-zags show no such moderation as some seem to assume. Lenin zig-zagged and so did Hitler. Zig-zags may show no more than that someone is playing the public for fools.


Some people who see the fraud in what Obama is saying are amazed that others do not. But Obama knows what con men have long known, that their job is not to convince skeptics but to enable the gullible to continue to believe what they want to believe. He does that very well.

[MMJ_fanatic]

Do Facts Matter?

Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."


Unfortunately, the future of this country, as well as the fate of the Western world, depends on how many people can be fooled on election day, just a few weeks from now.


Right now, the polls indicate that a whole lot of the people are being fooled a whole lot of the time.


The current financial bailout crisis has propelled Barack Obama back into a substantial lead over John McCain— which is astonishing in view of which man and which party has had the most to do with bringing on this crisis.


It raises the question: Do facts matter? Or is Obama's rhetoric and the media's spin enough to make facts irrelevant?

Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years— including the present year— denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.


It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.


It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis.


Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago.


Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter?


We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the facts show that it was the government that pressured financial institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal action by then Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't.


Is that the free market? Or do facts not matter?


Then there is the question of being against the "greed" of CEOs and for "the people." Franklin Raines made $90 million while he was head of Fannie Mae and mismanaging that institution into crisis.


Who in Congress defended Franklin Raines? Liberal Democrats, including Maxine Waters and the Congressional Black Caucus, at least one of whom referred to the "lynching" of Raines, as if it was racist to hold him to the same standard as white CEOs.


Even after he was deposed as head of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines was consulted this year by the Obama campaign for his advice on housing!


The Washington Post criticized the McCain campaign for calling Raines an adviser to Obama, even though that fact was reported in the Washington Post itself on July 16th. The technicality and the spin here is that Raines is not officially listed as an adviser. But someone who advises is an adviser, whether or not his name appears on a letterhead.


The tie between Barack Obama and Franklin Raines is not all one-way. Obama has been the second-largest recipient of Fannie Mae's financial contributions, right after Senator Christopher Dodd.


But ties between Obama and Raines? Not if you read the mainstream media.


Facts don't matter much politically if they are not reported.


The media alone are not alone in keeping the facts from the public. Republicans, for reasons unknown, don't seem to know what it is to counter-attack. They deserve to lose.


But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all, who has accomplished absolutely nothing beyond the advancement of his own career with rhetoric, and who has for years allied himself with a succession of people who have openly expressed their hatred of America.

[MMJ_fanatic]

bump!

[TEO]

Already voted...so why bother reading?

[MMJ_fanatic]

Sorry you missed them.

[xmascriminal]

But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all

So McCain saying he knows how to get Bin Laden doesn't make him a glib, cocky know-it-all? Basically, voting Republican in this election is akin to being insane. We'd be electing the oldest man to ever serve the office. If something happened and Sarah Palin became president, what would happen to our country? What would this idiotic, inexperienced person do with a neverending war and a desperate economic situation? Would it be the end of the United States or would it just be incredibly close? I urge you and every other Republican to reconsider your decision. Helping our country to avoid grave risk is a hell of a lot more important than being a loyal Republican or Democrat. USE YOUR HEAD. Don't believe the propaganda, Republians are masters at generating it. Believe me, if Palin was Obama's running mate, I'd vote for McCain. Anything's better than letting her anywhere near the White House.

[purvis9876]

But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all

So McCain saying he knows how to get Bin Laden doesn't make him a glib, cocky know-it-all? Basically, voting Republican in this election is akin to being insane. We'd be electing the oldest man to ever serve the office. If something happened and Sarah Palin became president, what would happen to our country? What would this idiotic, inexperienced person do with a neverending war and a desperate economic situation? Would it be the end of the United States or would it just be incredibly close? I urge you and every other Republican to reconsider your decision. Helping our country to avoid grave risk is a hell of a lot more important than being a loyal Republican or Democrat. USE YOUR HEAD. Don't believe the propaganda, Republians are masters at generating it. Believe me, if Palin was Obama's running mate, I'd vote for McCain. Anything's better than letting her anywhere near the White House.

The only man that old who should be running for POTUS is Ron Paul.  ;)

[MMJ_fanatic]

ding--good point

[MMJ_fanatic]

hmm

[MMJ_fanatic]

Mr Sowell is African American btw

[corey]

What a clever bump.

You don't think you're actually changing anyone's mind, do ya?

If people don't have their minds made up by now about who they're voting for, well, that's just fucked up.

[MMJ_fanatic]

Actually if they have their mind made up to go with Barry O already that's sad and f'd up.  Minds should be open right up until the last minute.

[Crispy]

Actually if they have their mind made up to go with Barry O already that's sad and f'd up.  Minds should be open right up until the last minute.

So there's still a chance that you'll be voting for Obama-Biden?

[jeffro79]

But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all

If something happened and Sarah Palin became president, what would happen to our country? What would this idiotic, inexperienced person do with a neverending war and a desperate economic situation? .

Organize a bake sale?

[purvis9876]

But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all

If something happened and Sarah Palin became president, what would happen to our country? What would this idiotic, inexperienced person do with a neverending war and a desperate economic situation? .

Organize a bake sale?

Only if it was god's will. I'm thinking more along the lines of nuclear devastation...   :-/